Chandigarh’s novel film festival begins Aug 1

Chandigarh, July 31 (IANS) No chief guest, no reservations and no tickets for entry will be the hallmark of the city’s first independent film festival, ‘Chhota Mooh Badi Baat’ (Tall talk), showing movies that “are beyond the dominion of Bollywood cinema”, a filmmaker said Thursday. Sixteen award winning films from all over India will be screened in the three-day film festival starting Aug 1 at Chandigarh museum auditorium.

“We are showing films that are beyond the dominion of Bollywood cinema. All of them are made by ordinary people and portray the voice of commoners, the voice that will prompt you to look within,” Gaurav Chhabra, a filmmaker and selector of the movies, told IANS.

The films included for screening were on issues of child abuse, child labour, illegal immigration and environmental concern. They are in different languages, including Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and English.

The festival is being organised by `Humlog’, a Chandigarh-based non-profit organisation, and the Chandigarh tourism department.

The film festival’s logo was unveiled by G.S. Channi and Harleen Kohli, senior theatre personalities from Chandigarh Thursday.

The logo is an illustration of open hand emblem of Chandigarh carrying a video camera.

“The logo showcases the common man’s hand, empowered with the power of media. This film festival is purely for the masses. That is why there will be no chief guest, no reservations and no tickets for entry. It is independent cinema from independent filmmakers,” said Chhabra.

“Such initiative will give an impetus to the flourishing wave of independent cinema among the ordinary people. Many good artists and film makers will be discovered and get recognition through such experiments,” said Channi.